Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
October 18, 2017

The days of men being laughed out of court or referred to as sissies for reporting female sexual predators are over thanks in part to new legislation being introduced to combat sexual harassment in the workplace, according to Government Senator Patrick Todd.

In his contribution to the debate in the Senate on the Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Bill, 2017, Todd spoke of “some female bosses going too far in terms of the sexual harassment of male employees” who failed to report such advances for fear of being ridiculed. However, he said the new legislation would eliminate this problem because it made provisions for confidential complaints to be made against the aggressors.

“In certain cultures a man is expected to be promiscuous, so how could one consider a man not accepting sexual advances by a woman? The question may be asked if such a man was gay or a sissy. That is why I am very happy that within the legislation as proposed these matters will be dealt with in a confidential manner. It would give the person subjected to this kind of harassment courage to come forward, knowing that they would not be ridiculed by their peers, or by the society,” Todd said.

He also said the legislation would combat “very aggressive” lesbians who pursue their female co-workers and homosexual men who harass other men.

“This legislation is not limited to sexual harassment of women by men, but this is a real world now where the whole issue of lesbians being very aggressive in seeking to have their way with unsuspecting vulnerable young women. This legislation will protect women from these unwanted sexual advances by other women; homosexual men seeking to take advantage of vulnerable men and in some cases you may have some female bosses going too far in terms of the sexual harassment of male employees,” he said.

Todd also reported on a discussion on a call-in programme during which young women complained of lecherous behaviour by young predatory males on the streets.

He said the women were resorting to wearing headphones in order to give the impression they were not hearing the unwanted catcalls.

“During a call-in programme some women who were guests were making reports of being harassed while using the streets in Barbados. They reported that in order to ignore the catcalls coming from such men they have to wear their headphones. They did this to pretend that they could not hear the sexual advances. They said that being courteous by just saying, ‘good morning’ they were concerned that those predatory men may take it in the wrong way. The men might see it as some kind of licence to sexually harass them. This demonstrates the fear that these predators drive in the hearts of these vulnerable women,” he said, adding that one young woman had her earphones pulled from her ears after she failed to respond to a man’s catcalls.